Oil Independent Oakland

[Guest guest]

Addressing Transportation, Land-Use, and Energy Issues

Through Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)

Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 6 pm

Hearing Room 1, Oakland City Hall

 

1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza

 

You're invited to attend the July 19th public meeting of the Oil Independent

Oakland (OIO)

By 2020 Task Force, which will include two presentations regarding the

coordination

of

land use, transportation, and energy issues with Personal Rapid Transit and Bus

Rapid

Transit. Details are down below. Please join us!

 

Agenda Item 4

 

Power Point and Video Presentation:

 

Solving Transportation, Land-Use, and Energy Issues Using Personal Rapid Transit

(PRT).

 

Robert Baertsch and Ron Swenson will present a review of the current state of

Personal

Rapid Transit (PRT) which came about as a result of their work with the Santa

Cruz

City

Council and the GTS (General Transportation System) project. The presentation

will

begin

with a 2-minute video produced by the Institute for Sustainable Transportation

in

Sweden

that demonstrates all of the basic principles of PRT. The characteristics

include:

100% net

solar powered transport without reliance on batteries; significantly reduced

energy

consumption compared with electric or gas powered cars; safer operation than

autonomous vehicles; driverless operation freeing up time during travel; lower

cost

per

mile of operation (including infrastructure). Although there are significant

technical

advantages, the barriers to introduction will also be discussed, as well as a

possible

roadmap that is being planned at UC Santa Cruz and other Bay Area research

organizations based on massive simulations. Besides the technical issues, Mr.

Baertsch

and Mr. Swenson will also show that PRT can facilitate transit-oriented

development

by

giving a powerful incentive for people to get out of their cars. This will allow

parking lots

and smaller streets to be reclaimed for other users and increase the tax base

for

the city.

Next, the presentation will estimate the total cost of the system to cover the

city

of

Oakland and will demonstrate that it will be much lower than the cost of owning

a car. At

the end of the presentation, a 3D view of a section of downtown Oakland will be

displayed

using Google Earth with a hypothetical PRT map so participants can see the

distance

that

potential users would have to walk to the closest station. We recommend that the

Oakland

City Council join the GTS project so that they could be eligible for GTS

funding.

 

Further information is available at http://www.solarevolution.com/prt.

 

Robert Baertsch spent ten years working for the U.N. on a program management

system

to

improve local capacity building and services to children in over 140 countries.

His

background in computer science and engineering and desire for public service led

him to a

Ph.D. program in bioinformatics at UC Santa Cruz, where he is currently working

on the

human genome project. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from SUNY Stony

Brook.

 

Ron Swenson is on the board of APSO-USA and is a co-founder of the GTS project.

 

 

 

Agenda Item 5

 

DVD Presentation Regarding Transportation Coordinated with Land Use,

Specifically,

Bus

Rapid Transit - Case Study: Curitiba Brazil.

 

 

 

The " Transportation " portion (15 minutes) of the documentary Urban Solutions

From

Curitiba, Brazil will be screened, followed by a discussion.

 

 

 

From the DVD cover: Cities should be a solution not a problem for human beings.

The city

of Curitiba has demonstrated for the past 40 years how to transform problems

into

cost-

effective solutions that can be applied in most cities around the world. Urban

Solutions

from Curitiba, Brazil is an informative, inspirational documentary aimed at

sharing

ideas to

provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The

documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits

including

affordable housing, parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one

of the

most livable cities in the world. The film includes interviews from world

renowned

Curitiba's mayors Jaime Lerner and Cassio Tanigushi, as well as other brilliant

minds who

made Curitiba a world class model.

 

The complete Agenda for the July 19th OIO Task Force meeting will be available

on-line

by

6 pm on Monday, July 16, at: Oil Independent Oakland (OIO) By 2020 Task Force.

 

When I see the price that you pay

I don't wanna grow up

I don't ever want to be that way

I don't wanna grow up

Seems that folks turn into things

that they never want